AS a follow-through to my immediately preceding article on the same subject, I feel obliged to provide my two-cents worth of insight on the dilemma confronting maritime higher education institutions (MHEIs) and those who dream of pursuing a career in merchant marine which is rocking the maritime industry and with some maritime stakeholders still clueless on what is on the horizon.
The recent policy adopting and implementing a National Merchant Marine Aptitude Test (NaMMAT) is rudimentary as it is irreconcilable with the national objective of growing the country’s maritime talents.
What is NaMMAT
At the height of the preparations for the transition of the maritime education jurisdiction from CHEd to Marina pursuant to Republic Act 120121, the former issued CHEd Memorandum Order 7 (CMO 7) on May 27, 2025, which operationalized the implementation of NaMMAT. According to CMO 7, NaMMAT is an examination to assess the readiness of student-applicants, local and foreign, to undertake an approved maritime education program in any CHEd-Marina-approved MHEIs. Essentially, it is an examination that qualifies the taker to pursue a BS Marine Transportation (BSMT) or a BS Marine Engineering (BSMarE) program, a post-secondary requirement to take a baccalaureate program.
The rationale given for implementing the NaMMAT under Section 1, Article 1 of CMO 7 was the inadequacies in the higher maritime education program which was uncovered during the audit mission of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). It appears that the basis of CMO 7 was the EMSA observation that some “MHEIs are offering elective courses, e.g. Mathematics (plane and spherical trigonometry, solid mensuration, differential and integral calculus and complex numbers, among others) because the secondary education did not cover these subjects to prepare students for higher education programs.” Responding to the EMSA observation, the 2022 Philippine Response to the European Commission Assessment Report put forward a number of strategic initiatives to be pursued by the country among which is the institutionalization of an examination that will screen incoming students to ensure that the maritime sector gets the best and brightest among the pool of potential seafarers. Indeed, the aspiration of every educational institution, MHEIs included, is to produce the best and brightest among its crop of students.
In responding to the EMSA observation, did the Philippines ever attempted to figure out ways by which to convince EMSA that the MHEIs’ offering elective subjects should not be taken negatively as if to defeat the STCW Convention purposes? Generally, the elective subjects mentioned are part of the curriculum of the engineering and science baccalaureate programs in the Philippines, therefore, regardless of whether or not engineering students took these in their secondary education, they need to take the same Mathematics subjects during the first two years of their tertiary programs. In the case of BSMT and BSMarE programs, these are offered as electives intended to strengthen their knowledge and comprehension, a purpose that should be given premium.
If indeed some senior high school finishers did not have these in their secondary education, why fault them to the extent of introducing a vetting system more burdensome that those imposed on entrants in the other educational programs? Would it be more logical if the EMSA observation is brought to the attention of the basic education department.
Proponents of the NaMMAT say that there is no pass or fail, that it is up the MHEIs to admit for enrolment the NaMMAT takers. If that is the case, why spend government money to bankroll a program that does not provide clear information on the effectiveness and benefits to those covered. On the other hand, those who failed to take the NaMMAT, for whatever reason, cannot enroll in any MHEI, thus an absurd situation follows where one who got a very low NaMMAT score is placed in a better position to pursue a merchant marine career.
Some MHEIs expressed concern that the NaMMAT will reduce the number of students in the BSMT/BSMarE programs. In such case, the mantra of reducing Filipino maritime students due to lack of cadetship berths will be attained, which is equivalent to raising the white flag even before the battle started.